Thursday, January 27, 2011
OSHA not reviewing death of stagehand
ReviewJournal.com: "State safety officials think they have significantly improved the way they hold employers accountable for on-the-job accidents, according to a Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration letter sent Tuesday to federal officials, who faulted a state investigation of a stagehand's death. The 20-year-old part-time stagehand was killed in 2009 by a fall in a showroom at MGM Grand.
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5 comments:
Pardon my language but this is such utter bullshit. Maybe the author of this post is biased in her writing but the whole incident just seems sketchy to me, Nevada OSHA. Dismissing crew before they can be interviewed, minimal interviews to boot and throwing their hands up crying, "We can't do anything!" blaming Nevada laws. Seems AWFULLY weak to me. I haven't done very much rigging in the forms mentioned here, but it seems that the Rhino failed to fix a problem they had been cited for and now someone is trying to cover up the fact that they knew about it and did nothing to fix it. I know accidents happen but the only thing worse than ignoring a problem is claiming it wasn't your fault when that problem becomes an accident.
This is the second article that I have read about this death that occurred. One of the things that this raised is that company sent people home before the OSHA inspector got there to interview everyone. I find it strange that the national OSHA can’t do anything about it they can just sit back and disagree with Nevada OSHA. I found it interesting that MGM and Rhino could negotiate there fines and the violations that they were guilty of. I think that they should just get all the violations that they deserve and pay all the fines that they were found guilty of and not to be able to talk it down. Also the companies did not do anything about the death not even sending flowers. I hope the best to this family and hope that the company’s involved get the punishment they deserve.
I agree with that this is total bullshit. It should be illegal to release people before they have been interviewed after an accident. the MGM completely lied to OSHA about use of the the area in question. They also told the rigger who died he would be working on the ground. The law is complete bullshit. There are loose ends and they can't go back and do what's right. There is no justice to what they are doing and wish the best for him mother and his family.
I hope that this incident will be a rallying cry for some changes to existing OSHA laws, but I have a suspicion that it will just end up being forgotten. It seems like the people involved cut a lot of corners, including not telling him the full extent of his job and releasing the crew after the incident before being interviewed. I understand that the economic consequences of this event could be catastrophic to Las Vegas, and I would assume this is the biggest reason the law isn't being pressed harder. Hopefully new language will be seen in the OSHA rulebook soon to prevent another incident like this to happen.
I am honestly just shocked that this could happen. It makes me so disappointed in people in general. This man's life was stolen because of an accident that could have been prevented, and no one is doing anything about it?!?!? I hope that Nevada OSHA and other similar organizations will at least learn from this event and prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future. No one should be allowed to send riggers up to a space when they know that part of that space is unsafe. I also recall reading last week that the technician was not hired for any work in the air and had had little experience with it. It upsets me that he was even sent up in the first place! It seems as though MGM, Rhino, and Nevada OSHA are all to blame in one way or another, and I hope that this event has scared them enough that they will be more logical, pro-active, and safe in the future.
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